Glossary

Estonian baking words

The words you will meet in my recipes, on flour bags and in older cookbooks. English first where there is a good equivalent; where there is not, I have kept the Estonian.

ahioven
Any oven, but in older stories the big masonry oven of a farmhouse, which baked the week’s bread and kept the room warm through the winter.
hapupiimsoured milk
Milk left to sour, thick and tangy. Kefir or buttermilk does the same job in karask and kama.
juuretissourdough starter
The jar of fermenting rye paste that raises the bread and makes it sour. How to start and keep one.
kamaroasted grain flour
A fine mix of roasted barley, rye, oat and pea flours, stirred into soured milk. Recipe.
kannikasthe heel of the loaf
The first or last slice, mostly crust. In many families it is the slice people argue over.
karaskbarley quick bread
A round barley bread raised with soda and soured milk and baked in a pan. Recipe.
kiluvõileibsprat sandwich
Black bread, butter, spiced sprats and a slice of boiled egg: the open sandwich of Estonian birthdays and cafés.
köömnedcaraway
The seeds that give much Estonian rye bread its familiar taste. Whole in the dough, and sometimes on top as well.
leibrye bread
The dark everyday loaf. Wheat bread has a word of its own, and the two are never confused.
leivakünadough trough
A wooden trough in which bread dough was mixed and left to rise. More on the trough.
leivalabidasbread peel
The long-handled wooden shovel for sliding loaves into a deep oven and taking them out again.
leivasuppbread soup
A sweet dessert soup of dried rye bread and dried fruit, served cold with whipped cream. Recipe.
linnasedmalt
Grain that has been sprouted and dried. The dark rye malt used for bread is also heated until it is red-brown, and gives scalded loaves their colour.
magushapusweet-sour
The style of scalded rye bread that is sweet and sour at once. Recipe.
must leibblack bread
The plain dark sourdough rye loaf. Recipe.
pätsa loaf
One whole loaf, as in leivapäts, a loaf of rye bread.
püülijahusifted rye flour
Rye flour with much of the bran sifted out. It makes a lighter, milder loaf than wholemeal.
rukisrye
The grain itself. Inside compound words it becomes rukki-: rukkijahu, rye flour; rukkileib, rye bread.
saiwheat bread
White or light wheat bread, and with a small ending, a bun: saiake.
sepikthe in-between loaf
Lighter than leib and darker than sai. Recipe.
taigendough
Any dough. Rye dough is closer to a thick paste than to a dough in the wheat sense.
täisterajahuwholemeal flour
Flour milled from the whole grain, bran and all. The usual choice for leib.